So here’s the hard part. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed writing about Bay Area theater on this blog (and in the newspaper) for the last decade. I’ve met extraordinary people and seen some extraordinary work. I remain, above all else, a huge fan of theater, especially in this corner of the world.

And I will continue to be. Just not here. Our company offered buyouts. I accepted.

Before my final bow, I’d like to thank all the editors who have been there for me: Sharyn Betz, Keith Jones, Lisa Wrenn and especially Kari Hulac; Richard Defendorf, JoAnna Kasper, Jeannie Wakeland, Barry Caine and the amazing Leslie Katz. Special nod to Jodie Chase for coming up with the name of my column (Jones for Theater) and to Paul Rudnick for inspiring the name of this blog.

Thanks beyond thanks to Cathy Schutz, no longer here in person but very much here in spirit. Cathy was the ultimate theater fan, one of my most ardent supporters and one of the most delightful people I have ever been lucky enough to know.

And finally, thanks to you out there for reading and for caring about theater.

So, curtain down on this particular production, and curtain up on…who knows what? I’ll give the final word to Stephen Sondheim and Sunday in the Park with George: “White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities.”

Wolohan was voted by American Theatre magazine as one of the country’s seven actors “worth traveling to see,” and I wholeheartedly agree.

I first met Wolohan when I interviewed him during his stint in the Aurora Theatre Company’s Tough! That was in 2000, and since then, Wolohan has continued to create indelible performances, many for Campo Santo, the San Francisco troupe headed by Sean San Jose that is responsible for some of the most interesting new work in the country.

Wolohan is currently making his Berkeley Repertory Theatre debut in Will Eno’s extraordinary TRAGEDY: a tragedy, which begins previews this weekend and opens next Wednesday on the Thrust Stage.

When Wolohan finishes his run with Berkeley Rep, the San Francisco actor (and die-hard Giants fan — and we man die-hard) is moving to Los Angeles.

“I am going to spend a year there,” Wolohan says. “People have been saying for years I should come down and make some money. I turned 35, and I’m busier than ever, but financially it’s a miracle that actors can make their lives happen doing what we love to do. I’m going to spend a year there and plan to be back in May of ’09 for another Aurora show.”

Wolohan had to turn down theater jobs so he could make the move, and though he admits that, especially in baseball terms, he’s heading into “enemy territory,” he can’t say no to the prospect of gainful, possibly financially lucrative work.

“One of the most difficult things I’ve ever done is walk away from all the good things that are happening here and aim for financial security,” he says. “But I’m coming back no matter what. If it goes really well down there, I’ll use whatever success to help Campo Santo and help it grow. The work is so special there. To my mind, not enough people know about it, and I’d like to affect that.”

For his last hurrah — for now — Wolohan is playing the key role of the Witness in TRAGEDY, a bizarre, funny, chilling one-act play about a TV newscast covering a mysterious, possibly cataclysmic event.

It’s a challenging role if for no other reason than Wolohan only has a few sentences early in the play then a meaty monologue late in the play. But he, like his fellow cast members, remains onstage the entire time, not moving much.

“I’ve done construction off and on for 16 years, so it’s silly for me to complain, but it’s hard to be still that much,” Wolohan says. “But I’m soldiering on through my hardships.”

Describing the play is difficult, even for Wolohan, who has been immersed in it for weeks.

“I think the play succeeds best when its indefinable,” Wolohan says. “One moment it’s the funniest thing ever, the next, it’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. Will pulls you in and opens you up with this relentless humor. Once you’re open, he sneaks in these things that are real bombs — all this stuff about the hard-to-handle aspects of being alive, about dying and losing everything but also about how we have to keep going and how hard that is. That’s where the compassion is in the play — in acknowledging how hard it is for us to do that.”

Working with director Les Waters, who is something of wonder with new plays, has been a pleasure, Wolohan says.

“He creates a great atmosphere. Everyone feels safe,” he says. “He lets us make mistakes and continue to be creative. It’s always impressive when someone has talent and good manners and respect for everybody. At a certain level of success, you can get away with not having those qualities. But he’s a real gentleman, and for me, that makes going to work great.”

Remember when you see Wolohan on screens large or small that he’s coming back to the stage. Let’s hold him to that, shall we?

Time to start thinking about those season tickets — or at least cherry picking which shows you’re going to make a point of seeing next season.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s 2008-09 season was announced this week. Here’s how it shapes up.

Yellowjackets by Itamar Moses (left) — Berkeley native writes about Berkeley High School and the student newspaper. Tony Taccone directs.

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson — East Bay resident Delroy Lindo returns to Berkeley Rep to direct the play that earned him a Tony Award nomination.

The Arabian Nights by Mary Zimmerman — Local audiences are getting quite used to the dynamic theatricality of Chicago’s Zimmerman, a near-constant in Berkeley Rep’s recent seasons. This time out she’s zaaaing up the legend of the 1,001 nights.

The Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl — The last time director Les Waters was paired with Ruhl, the results were extraordinary. Eurydice turned out to be one of the best nights at the theater in a good long while. Now the director and the fast-emerging writer pair up for a world premiere about six lonely people seeking relief from a local doctor.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh — The pairing of Waters and McDonagh was exciting last season in The Pillowman. Now Waters sinks his teeth into McDonagh’s bloody comedy about a dead cat and the Irish troubles.

Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang — Hwang finally makes his Berkeley Rep debut with a satirical self-portrait of a writer caught in a controversy of his own creation.

Around the World in 80 Days by Mark Brown (adapted from Jules Verne) — Adventurer Phileas Fogg embarks on the original version of “Amazing Race” in this streamlined, highly theatrical stage adaptation.

The Kite Runner by Matthew Spangler (adapted from Khaled Hosseini) — A big coup for San Jose Rep, this is the world premiere stage adaptation of the hot, hot novel that has already been turned into a controversial movie.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn — This utterly charming musical was a big hit in San Francisco, and now it makes its way into the regional theater circuit.

When Judy Gold began her career in stand-up comedy, she struck, well, gold — literally — when she started imitating her mother.

Hereâ€™s a sampling. â€œAfter my new sunglasses that I bought in San Diego broke, my mother says: `Well, who buys sunglasses in San Diego? Nobody buys sunglasses in San Diego.â€™â€™â€™ Or, to the usher who helped the elder Mrs. Gold find her theater seat when the daughter Gold was in the The Vagina Monologues,“If you only knew the agony.â€™â€™

Yes, Rivka (or Ruth) Gold has been a source of great material for Judy Gold. But Judy would occasionally get into trouble with the press, especially the Jewish press, for doing impersonations of her whiny mother.

“The said I was promoting a stereotype,â€™â€™ Gold says on the phone from her home in New York City, where she lives with sons Ben, 11, and Henry, 6.

“So I went out with Kate Moira Ryan, and we interviewed Jewish mothers. We talked to everyone — Holocaust survivors, children of survivors, reform, conservative, straight, gay — everyone. And these women changed my life.â€™â€™

They also provided fodder for Goldâ€™s first play: the solo show 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, which Gold has been performing around the country for the last few years. She brings her “Motherâ€™â€™ project to San Franciscoâ€™s Marines Memorial Theatre on Tuesday, March 11.

“Initially, this was a labor of love, to find out what made Jewish mothers Jewish mothers,â€™â€™ Gold says. “Then I wanted to find out where I fit in. Iâ€™m a single Jewish lesbian with two kids from anonymous sperm donors. I have done nothing in my life in a conventional manner. Nothing. Zero. Iâ€™m a comedian. I donâ€™t do anything normally.â€™â€™

And yet Gold keeps a Kosher home and says being Jewish is “a big part of who I am.â€™â€™
The quest to find out where she fit in, in addition to creating a show (and a book of the same title), helped Gold feel more grounded.

“Iâ€™m proud to be part of this group,â€™â€™ she says. “These women I talked to, Iâ€™m honored, with very few exceptions, to be party of their group. There were a couple of crazies.â€™â€™

Part of the process involved Gold interviewing her own mother.

“For the first time I saw her as a human being — someone who had hopes and dreams not realized and disappointments,â€™â€™ Gold recalls. “We should all interview our parents like that. We write about how to do that in the book. You donâ€™t want to have a person be gone and regret never having asked them for something.â€™â€™

Though Gold plays many Jewish mothers in her play, she does spend a lot of time talking about her own mother. So what did Mrs. Gold think about the play she inspired?

“Iâ€™ve never seen my mother cry over anything of substance — just about when she loses her keys and stuff like that — and she could barely talk. She was so moved. It was pretty amazing.

25 Questions for a Jewish Mother continues through March 23 at the Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. Tickets are $39-$49. Call 415-771-6900 or visit www.marinesmemorialtheatre.com for information.

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has named six finalists in its annual playwriting competition, supported by generous funding from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, which recognizes plays that premiered outside New York City.

The top honoree in the Steinberg /ATCA New Play Awards will receive $25,000 — the largest prize for a national playwriting award. Two additional playwrights will receive $7,500 each.

The winners will be announced at a March 29, 2008 ceremony at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre in Louisville, Ky.

The six finalists:

The Crowd You’re in With, by Rebecca Gilman, debuted at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco in November. The play examines three couples at a backyard barbecue who reveal vastly different attitudes toward having children in the 21st century.

End Days, by Deborah Zoe Laufer, premiered in October at Florida Stage in Manalapan. Sometimes comic, sometimes moving, the play studies the challenge of maintaining faith in a world dominated by science and fear. A Jewish family copes with the aftermath of 9/11 as the mother, now a born-again Christian, tries to convert the family before the rapture arrives — on Wednesday.

The English Channel, by Robert Brustein, debuted in September at Suffolk University and then the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard. The noted critic and founder of the American Repertory Theatre penned a droll comedy centering on creativity, inspiration and plagiarism, in which the young Shakespeare, the ghost of Marlowe and the Dark Lady of the Sonnets collide in a tavern.

Strike-Slip, by Naomi Iizuka, opened last spring at the Humana Festival. The playwright presents a cinematic look at the interconnected nature of seemingly disconnected lives in the diverse, multi-cultural Los Angeles basin. One judge praised it as a 21st Century O. Henry story.

33 Variations, by Moises Kaufman, debuted in September at Washington’s Arena Stage. Kaufman offers a fictional imagining of Beethoven’s creation of 33 brilliant variations on a prosaic waltz. His obsessive pursuit of perfection parallels a modern tale of a terminally-ill musicologist struggling with her own obsession to unearth the source of Beethoven’s.

These finalists were selected from 28 eligible scripts submitted by ATCA
members. As the competition requires, none had productions in New York City in
2007. They were evaluated by a committee of 12 theater critics from around the
U.S. headed by chairman Wm. F. Hirschman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and vice-chair George Hatza of the Reading Eagle.

“The amazing range of work — dramas, fantasies, musicals, farces, melodramas —
was uplifting confirmation that theater remains a vital and evolving art form
that can speak to every generation,” Hirschman said.

The awards are supported by an annual grant of $40,000 from the Harold and Mimi
Steinberg Charitable Trust, created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg on behalf of
himself and his late wife. The primary mission of the Steinberg Charitable Trust
to support the American theater. The trust has provided grants totaling millions
of dollars to support new productions of American plays and educational programs
for those who may not ordinarily experience live theater.

At 7 p.m. Friday on the Thrust Stage (2025 Addison St., Berkeley), I’ll be chatting with playwright Will Eno (above), whose Tragedy: a tragedy, is next up at Berkeley Rep, and associate artistic director Les Waters, who’s directing.

Here’s Eno’s bio from the back of the published version of his Thom Pain (based on nothing):
Will Eno lives in Brooklyn. His plays include The Flu Season, Tragedy: a tragedy, KING: a problem play, Intermissionand others. His plays have been produced in London by the Gate Theatre, the Soho Theatre Company and BBC Radio, and, in the U.S., by the Rude Mechanicals, the NY Power Company, and Naked Angels. Thom Pain (based on nothing) was awarded the First Fringe Award at the Edinburgh Festival.

Here’s what Edward Albee has to say about Eno: â€œHe strikes me as being the real thing, a real playwright. He takes every chance. And Will keeps the voice his own: he has an awareness of the human condition I wish more people his age had.”

In many ways, Edna O’Brien’s Tir na nOg (Land of Youth)feels like a Word for Word production gone wrong.

Word for Word is the tremendously successful group that turns works of fiction into works of theater without changing the original text. If O’Brien had gone the Word for Word route in turning her first novel, The Country Girls (1960), into a play, she probably would have had better luck.

As it is, Tir na nOg, which had its world premiere at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, feels like fiction that hasn’t found its way into the world of theater.

There’s some beautiful, funny writing, and the story itself, ultimately about a young woman’s liberation from the bonds of society, church and family, is interesting. But as a playwright, O’Brien, who is no stranger to the Magic stage (Triptych, Family Butchers)), working the Magic’s outgoing artistic director, Chris Smith, hasn’t found a way for the story to live and breathe as a play.

The first act, set in the mid-to-late 1950s, is simply dramatically inert. We meet O’Brien’s heroines: Baba Brennan (Summer Serafin), from one of the small towns better families, and Kate Brady (Allison Jean White), a smart but poor girl whose father gets abusive when he drinks, which is often.

Once O’Brien effectively gets rid of Kate’s parents and sends the girls to convent boarding school, nothing happens. The most exciting thing on stage is seeing what the giant armoire at the back of Annie Smart’s mostly bare set will open to reveal: candles in a church, a family’s china collection or a priest’s pulpit.

Director Smith attempts to weave music throughout the proceedings, with Deborah Black as a nameless woman (outfitted by costumer Cassandra Carpenter as a beggar woman), who wanders through singing. We occasionally get a fiddle or a guitar along with a group number, but the music isn’t nearly as effective or as evocative as it wants to be.

It would seem that O’Brien and Smith are attempting to create a play with music, much like director Richard Nelson did in his beautiful adaptation of James Joyce’s The Dead. But the music here adds very little, especially at the end of Act 1, when a song about Dublin, the big bad city, is meant to be dramatic, when it’s really just confusing.

In Act 2, once Baba and Kate are in Dublin, things get a little more interesting, but Kate’s romance with an older married man, Mr. Gentleman (Robert Parsons) is bungled. And the ending, when the beggar woman becomes a guiding spirit and helps Kate come to terms with her past and move more confidently into her future is more believable — and more moving — in theory than in practice. The end feels like a literary device that would be far more effective on the page.

Though the play, which runs about two long hours, can’t overcome its episodic nature to achieve dramatic momentum, the performances are strong, especially those of the thoughtful, sensitive White as Kate and the vibrant, red-headed verve of Serafin as the spitfire Baba.

Like all of the supporting players, Anne Darragh essays many parts and is most effective as a German landlady who doesn’t appreciate the “cheeky” girls living in her house and flirting with her husband.

Matt Foyer makes much of a thankless part in Kate’s drunken father, and both Cat Thompson (as a sweet nun who takes a liking to Kate) and Michael Louis Wells (in all his parts but especially as Hickey, a small town working man) shine.

The conclusion of Tir na nOg feels like the end of a first chapter, not the end of a play. Indeed, the original novel turned out to be the first part of a trilogy. It might have been much more interesting to dramatize one of the other books and refer to the first one in flashback, because that’s what this play feels like.

TheatreFirst, the intrepid small theater company that just will not give up, is moving again.

The itinerant troupe always seems to find itself without a home after having been promised a permanent home. After bouncing from rec room to church to make-shift theater space, Clive Chafer’s group finally found a home in the Oakland YWCA. That worked out …until it didn’t.

Then they nabbed a storefront space in Old Oakland. That worked out … until it didn’t.

But Chafer (above with L. Peter Callender) is not one to give up. He recently announced that TheatreFirst will present the U.S. premiere of Stephen Brown’s Future Me, a London hit that had its premiere in a pub.

And where will the show go on? Chafer says that he has entered negotiations for a building in the nascent arts district of uptown Oakland (near the Paramount Theatre).

“If all goes well,” Chafer writes, “the company hopes to announce a four-show season there, opening in the fall of 2008.”

Meanwhile, “Future Me” will open at the Berkeley City Club on April 4 (after a preview on April 3) and continue through May 4. Tickets are $23-$28 (previews are $10). Patrons younger than 25 are half price.

The Berkeley City Club is at 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. Call 510-436-5085 or visit www.theatrefirst.com.

Wednesday night (Feb. 20) we’ll experience one of those all-too-rare occasions when we dont’ have to go to Broadway, when Broadway comes to us.

PBS’ “Great Performances” will broadcast the John Doyle-directed Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Companyon Wednesday night (Bay Area folks, it’s 9 p.m. on KQED-Channel 9). So set those DVRs (or VCRs if you still have them) and revel in the Doyle-ization of Sondheim.

As you may recall Doyle directed Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd to much acclaim, and his gimmick is that he has all his performers play their own instruments. Usually, in my experience, it works one of two ways. If you saw Sweeney first, you thought it was brilliant and though Company was a weak copy-cat effort. But if you saw Company first, as I did, you think that’s where the brilliance lies and Sweeney was sort of a confusing effort to producer a cheaper version of an expensive show.

I loved Raul Esparza as Bobby, the ambivalent protagonist who, on the occasion of his 35th birthday, spends mental energy thinking about all his “good crazy people his friends, his good crazy people his married friends.” In Doyle’s slick, sleek production, everyone who’s partnered plays an instrument, which leaves Bobby, the remote observer, the only one not playing an instrument.

The structure of Company, unlike the more narrative Sweeney, is well-suited to Doyle’s gimmick because the musicianship, combined with the revue-like scenes, provides an arc to the evening that helps pull it all together. It even warms up what is a pretty cold, cynical (not to mention funny) show.